When the Devil Broke the Universe

"So why were you banished?"

Neloth looked up from his work table at the source of the voice. Nagisa sat on another empty table over in the corner, her short legs dangling above the floor. He blinked in surprise, he hadn't heard her come in. Had he been that engrossed in his work? "What are you doing here? I hadn't scheduled a session for you today," he asked as he returned to his work.

"I was done with my lessons and…well, Kyoko's in a bad mood." Nagisa said, frowning. When she'd left, Kyoko and the teacher had been in the middle of a screaming match, and Nagisa didn't want to deal with it. She hated seeing Kyoko like that, and there wasn't much Nagisa could do to help her. Despite her victory the other day, the redhead had remained tense and brooding, and was gradually getting worse. On one hand Nagisa could understand; the silver-haired girl was doing her best to play it off, but the culture shock was finally starting to catch up with her as well. She had no frame of reference to anything familiar, and that was just making her cling to both her studies and Kyoko even harder.

Even normal food items were just off enough to make them feel weird; "ash yams" and "guar cheese".

Neloth paused, looking back up, "Why? I thought she was finally starting to get it," he said, referring to the magic lessons.

Nagisa shrugged, "Yeah, she is. All except illusion magic, anyway. And right now all the teacher wants is for us to practice that."

Neloth grunted in irritation, "So why don't you go cheer her up?"

"… Kyoko's better when she has time to cool off," Nagisa replied. After a moment, she asked again, "So why are you in exile?" It was best to distract herself instead of focusing on her problems.

The mage took a steadying breath; so this was how today was going to be, huh? "Because House Redoran decided I'm too dangerous to be free, but also too dangerous to kill. So I'm stuck here."

"Why?"

That simple word was enough to make Neloth clench, "Because," he said as evenly as possible as he was forced to recount history because of a nine year old's incessant questions, "Once upon a time there were five Houses on the Council that ruled Morrowind. Terrible things happened two and a half centuries ago, and one of the houses, House Hlaalu, was dishonored and replaced with House Sadras. Unfortunately for all involved, Sadras had ties to a foreign power, the Aldmeri Dominion. Sadras got power-hungry and moved against the leading house, Redoran…something that didn't end well for them. When the dust settled, Redoran decided to abandon the Council altogether and subjugated what was left of the other major houses by force. Those who resisted were dealt with severely."

"So you're the last of the Telvanni?"

"The true Telvanni, yes," Neloth muttered with distaste, "Some Redoran-knockoff guild exists within their employ, and there are a handful of idiot children without any real skill or talent calling themselves the 'New Telvanni' or whatever holed up on the island of Telvannis against all odds. But yes, I am the last grand mage of the old order. Or…" he thought for a moment, "At least the last confirmed," he sighed, reminding himself that Divayth Fyr had just outright vanished one day a few weeks before Red Mountain erupted never to be seen again, "We were few in number even before Red Year, and we never recovered from the Argonian invasion".

"… Red Year?"

Neloth nodded absentmindedly as he continued (or at least pretended to continue) his work, "Two and a half centuries ago when that volcano outside erupted and never stopped. Dunmer history since that point has been a mix of chaos and stupidity," he sighed, thinking back, "… Morrowind used to be beautiful. Verdant plains and forests. We were a society of artisans and scholars. Now we huddle in poverty like ashlanders."

He looked back up at Nagisa as he swept away from the table and over towards her as he changed the conversation back, "House Redoran won't bother me because they know they'd lose more men than is worth it, and in return I 'acknowledge' their suzerainty, for whatever that's worth. It works out well for us. I get to exist in this frigid, remote hellscape for the rest of my life, and they get to pretend they matter in the long run. Everybody wins," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Now, why are you here, besides to ask questions you could find in a book? Do you want something to do? Because I promised your friend I wouldn't start experimenting on you, but if you're just going to walk into my workspace, who am I to say no?"

Nagisa flinched a bit at that, not fully having considered she was walking into the lion's den. She'd felt guilty that Kyoko had taken on the majority of the burden herself which, she supposed that was part of why she'd wandered in here, but it was more that she had another question on her mind. Nagisa grasped the language amulet she still wore. She'd spent most of the first day taking the amulet on and off, seeing how far she could lift it above her shoulders before the teacher's speech stopped making sense—at least until the teacher made her stop so she could start paying attention to the lessons.

"… How do enchantments work?" she asked suddenly, knocking Neloth off-guard.

"Excuse me?"

"Enchantments. How do they work?" Nagisa repeated, "I've been trying to look stuff up on them in the library, but I think those books are still a bit above my reading level".

"Naturally. Enchantment is a higher-level magical subject and requires more skill than simply lobbing fireballs around." Neloth regarded the girl curiously for a moment, "… Why are you interested?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. It looks… neat, and it's different from what I'm used to".

Neloth's expression was unreadable, but he relented, "I'll… have some basic enchantment studies added to your lesson plan. Now, if you're quite done interrupting my work—"

"This is INTOLERABLE" Idula, the dunmer woman teaching the girls exclaimed angrily as she floated up into Neloth's workstation. Her leather armor was smoking and she herself looked like she'd just been through a wind tunnel.

"Oh for the love of, what now!?" Neloth shouted back, exasperated that his study time continued to be interrupted. He had work to get done, why couldn't anyone figure things out for themselves!? As if to punctuate his complaints, a middle-aged dunmer man who Neloth recognized as the head of the kitchen staff also levitated up into his workspace, just as irritated and frustrated as Idula.

Neloth's brow furrowed as he realized what had happened even before they were able to explain, "… What did she do now?"